But Bond's face wore a huge smile. She and Mills, after all, were the winners of an unprecedented offer-fest for what Prudential real estate agent Bob Sereda billed as a "Contractor's delight!" when he put the house on the multiple listing services July 26.

The asking price was $269,500. The response was much more than Sereda, and certainly Bond and Mills, had bargained for.

When all the haggling was said and done, the couple's offer rose above 61 others to claim the prize.

Yes, when the real estate market is supposedly cooling off, a rundown 1947 bungalow stirred the passions of 62 sets of buyers, many of whom were heartbroken to learn that they'd lost.

"People were really disappointed, I think because they could see things in this house," Sereda said. "They could see through and beyond what was there, and imagine what it could be. It's not just an ordinary tract house."

Sereda, truth can now be told, obviously miscalculated when he determined the listing price.

A house across the street in the pretty, safe Lincoln Heights neighborhood had sold for $400,000 in the spring, and it was little more than half the size of the 2,035-square-foot object of so many's affections. Houses get even pricier as you go up the hill toward the Mormon Temple.

But Sereda had seen this house at its worst. Its eccentric elderly owner had not kept it up after she moved in in 1968, and when she moved to a nursing home three years ago, her 13 cats had the run of the place.

The owner died earlier this year, and Sereda is handling the sale for her heirs. Shocked at what he saw on first inspection, he had the house emptied of everything.

What remained, he finally saw, were an open and bright floor plan with large rooms - it's only a two-bedroom, with two bathrooms - and a sprawling 8, 250-square-foot corner lot with a two-car garage.

But the walls were tattered, the hardwood floors stained and scarred.

Then there was that horrific odor and the question of how deeply the cat urine had penetrated.

Sereda, even with "20-some-odd years" in the business, simply had no idea what to expect.

"Some of the agents say, 'You priced it too low,' " he said. "But because of the condition of the house, it was calculated to get as many people here to see it as possible."

'You've got to see this'

Northbrae Realty agent Anita Thede saw the place during the brokers tour and began dialing Bond on the cell phone as she toured.

Bond, 33, and Mills, 32, had married May 5 at the Brazilian Room in Berkeley's Tilden Park and come home from their honeymoon only to find that their landlord was selling the roof out from over their heads.

Mills is an accomplished carpenter, so they shopped for fixer-uppers while living with patient friends for a couple of months.

They made one offer on a house they didn't get and decided they'd better rent an apartment come August. They'd just moved in when Thede called and said,

"I'm walking through this house, and you've just got to see this."

Their first visit was a long and excited one. They were actually happy about the disheveled state of the kitchen, envisioning Mills building new cherry-finished cabinets.

"I've worked on houses way worse than this," Mills concluded. "This one is all cosmetic. First we'll do the hardwood floors, then definitely a paint job and a lot of yard work."

A few days later, they went to one of Sereda's open houses to eavesdrop on fellow bargain-hunters.

"We wanted to see if people were scared away," Bond said.

"They didn't seem scared," Mills said. "And a lot of them were contractors who saw the place the way I did."

Sereda said he's never had an open house where people stayed for so long or where they would leave and then return with a second pair of eyes.

"I was surprised at the interest people had," he said. "They didn't just hold their noses and leave."

Agents were shocked

When the day of reckoning arrived, Aug. 15, the parade of agents began at Sereda's Montclair office.

"I thought there'd be 10 or 15 offers," Thede said. "When I got there, I found out I was No. 30."

By the end of the day, there were 62 offers, and Sereda was putting a message on his answering machine explaining the situation to all of those agents who were dying to hear a response.

Many of them couldn't believe what they heard and called the machine again just to ask if they'd heard right. Some, naturally, were not pleased.

"Personally I was appalled," said one agent, who did not wish to be named. "We did a lot of work on that offer, and it was obviously incorrectly priced."

Only four offers ultimately were countered, including the winner.

The price remains confidential because Mills and Bond haven't closed yet, but here's a clue: One of the offers that was not even countered was for more than $50,000 over asking price, with no contingencies.

Such is life at the threshold of homeownership, said Thede.

"There are just more buyers in that price range," she said. "(Bond and Mills) were perfectly comfortable with the price."

Comfort now becomes a matter of sweat equity for Mills and Bond, who are scheduled to close Friday and move in Oct. 1. It's hard to imagine them living in what Bond calls "The Kittycat House" that soon, but they have a lot of friends.

Fortunately, Mills brews his own beer.

Said Bond, "As soon as we found out we got the house, he brewed up a couple of batches."

They'll need that beer and probably a lot more Planet Urine.

But ultimately, they'll have a place to start a family, a houseful of sweat equity and an incredible story to tell about what it took to get it all.

HOW TO PREVAIL IN A BIDDING WAR

If you are determined to buy a particular house, the way that Christine Bond and Chris Mills longed for 4030 Laguna, here are a few strategies that will help your offer tower over the competition:

-- Get preapproved with a lender you can count on to deliver the goods on time. Without preapproval, you won't even be considered in a multiple offer playoff.

-- Waive all contingencies in your offer, including the appraisal contingency. This means that if the appraisal comes in low, you must have the extra cash to cover what the lender won't finance.

-- Write a big check when you submit your offer. Standard deposits are 3 percent or even less. A bigger one shows the seller that you won't flake out during escrow.

-- If you have fallen in love with the house or the neighborhood, write the sellers a letter telling them so. Bond and Mills sent a honeymoon picture and said, "We want to start our family in this house." But even if you're not newlyweds, it can't hurt.